Community Based Prevention and Implementation: Symposium & Workshop

Collaborative action to plan and implement appropriate supports for children, families, and communities can be a challenge. This is not due to any lack of good will but rather to the numerous barriers embedded in our organisations and communities, a lack of resources and tools that support collaborative evidence-driven practice, and limitations in how we think about 'what is needed'. At the Community Based Prevention and Implementation Symposium (30th October) and Implementation Science and Practice Workshop (31st October), we are bringing together leading Australian and international practitioners and researchers to share emerging knowledge about system transformation and how evidence-based services can be implemented to achieve measurable improvements in the wellbeing of children, families, and communities.

30 October Symposium:

Community Based Prevention and Implementation: Achievements and Challenges

The saying 'Nothing About Us - Without Us' reminds us of the importance of working in respectful partnership with consumers of programs and services to transform the wellbeing of children, families and communities. This is especially reflected in the Uluru Statement from the Heart (May 2017) and the more recent ChangeFest 2018 Statement (November 2018). Both of these statements assert the primacy of community co-design and control in the creation, implementation and evaluation of actions that occur within communities. However, coming together to plan and implement appropriate supports for children, families and communities can be a challenge, due not to any lack of good will but rather to numerous barriers embedded in our organisations and communities, and in how we think about 'what is needed'. A very practical challenge is that helping organisations, schools, and communities frequently lack the tools they need to understand and respond to local problems.

The collective Impact movement offers guidance on how to bring fragmented services together to achieve common goals. When the goal is to improve the wellbeing of children, early education and schools play a vital role in enabling community-based prevention and support. However, one part of the Collective Impact equation missing is the use of scientific methods and the associated tools and resources to realise the promise of collaboration. Prevention and Implementation Sciences provide some of the missing ingredients that will assist in shifting the dial for communities facing complex community needs.

Insights from Prevention and Implementation Sciences point to how data-driven decision-making and evidence-informed action can occur. They inform, for example, the development of practical methodologies and resources that help build the capacity of the sector. Moreover, knowledge derived from decades of research and practice is helping inform community action based on comprehensive theories of change by means of which the imperatives of implementation fidelity and adaptations to context can be balanced. These insights are contributing to an emerging practice that is based on a continuous learning cycle of reflection, theorising, planning and acting.

At this symposium, leading practitioners and researchers from around the world will share with attendees emerging knowledge about how services can be implemented to achieve measurable improvements in community wellbeing. Opportunities to apply this knowledge to your practice will be provided throughout the day.

31 October Workshop:

Implementation Science and Practice: Introduction to Key Concepts

Considered by some as the necessary link between science and practice, the field of Implementation Sciences addresses the factors that influence the delivery of quality services.

Implementation Sciences reminds us that the development of evidence-based practices (as informed by Prevention Science) is not enough to ensure good outcomes. Indeed implementation matters! However, for a number of reasons many evidence-based programs are not implemented well.

Understanding implementation, is therefore vital to the development, successful use and upscaling of evidence-based programs.

Concepts such as, theory of change or program logic, fidelity, adaptation and measuring implementation are all important to Implementation Sciences. This one-day workshop will explore these, and other core concepts related to Implementation Sciences. Opportunity to apply these concepts to your practice and how it relates to systems change will be provided throughout the day.